Mayor to historic hotel's protectors: "It's time to move on."

"It's time to move on," Griffin said Thursday.

"I appreciate that some people have an emotional attachment to this building, but we have now reached a point where the will of the majority - and the people's elected representatives - is clear," he said.

Demolition work on the 52-year-old hotel-casino resumed late Wednesday just hours after the Nevada Supreme Court lifted a temporary stay protecting the brick building.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation and local activists have another lawsuit pending in Washoe County district court.

But city officials say they are sticking with original plans to blow up the Mapes on Jan. 30, Super Bowl Sunday.

The delay in preliminary work for the implosion has cost city taxpayers $6,900 a day since the court order was put in place on Dec. 23, city spokesman Chris Good said.

In their second lawsuit before Washoe District Judge James Hardesty, preservationists accuse the City Council of violating open bidding rules in contracting for the demolition.

Hardesty rejected their first suit, which was appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court. He agreed with their claims that the City Council violated open meetings laws when it discussed the Mapes at a secret meeting but said the Council corrected that error at a public hearing before the 5-2 vote for demolition in September.

Built in 1947, the 12-story luxury hotel and casino with art deco architecture was the first in the nation constructed specifically to house a hotel, casino, restaurant and live entertainment under one roof.

During its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, entertainers such as Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Bennett headlined in its famous Sky Room with top-floor views of the Sierra Nevada.

The building has been vacant since 1982. Several rehabilitation proposals have fallen through.

Griffin dismisses critics who accuse the City Council of rushing the demolition.

"If the council was really hell-bent on demolishing the Mapes, we could have done that three years ago and saved us all a lot of grief," he said last month.

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